


Depictions of times gone by

by looneytails (mixthealphabet)



Category: Percy Jackson and the Olympians - Rick Riordan, The Heroes of Olympus - Rick Riordan
Genre: Alternate Universe - Flower Shop, Alternate Universe - Tattoo Parlor, Friendship, M/M, Past Sadness
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2015-01-20
Updated: 2015-03-08
Packaged: 2018-03-08 09:53:29
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 4
Words: 6,506
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/3204914
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/mixthealphabet/pseuds/looneytails
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Someone had to remind him never to make bets with Hazel. That girl had some seriously good luck.</p>
            </blockquote>





	1. A rather unimpressive first meeting

Nico di Angelo could not believe he had been persuaded into working at Persephone’s flower shop for the rest of the year.  Though maybe persuaded wasn’t quite the word, since it was more the outcome of his sister’s manipulation than it was of his discontented concession.

Someone had to remind him never to make bets with Hazel. That girl had some seriously good luck.

“You need to meet new people.” That was what she had said three weeks ago, when the two had finally handed over their final essays on the representation of minorities in television. Media Studies was the only class they took together and, therefore, the only one where they could talk without worrying their friends might show up. “We can let fate decide. If my paper gets a better grade than yours, you’ll do as I say. If not, then I’ll let you be.”

Hazel knew she had him, then. If there was something Nico had learned from growing up as the son of a major corporation’s CEO and as the cousin of two over-achieving and ever-fighting knuckleheads, it was that one should never back up from a challenge.

Hazel herself was usually against these aggressive methods. She hadn’t grown up in the same household as the di Angelos and, therefore, had escaped the family legacy of competitiveness and anger-management problems. She was still insecure and even a bit moody, but her heart was always in the right place, too kind to be antagonistic.

Nico knew that Hazel was using this as a last resort, so he agreed. Moreover, he was pretty sure his essay was kicking ass and taking names.

“I can’t believe that Hazel got an A plus plus,” he complained to Frank, who’d just dropped off his lunch.

The delivery boy offered him a sympathetic smile.

“Hazel really knows her stuff, Nico.” Frank adjusted his _Fai CanTing_ cap. “And you know she’s not wrong on this. You do need to meet new people.”

As it turned out, however, new people sucked.

The customers were loud and impolite, always running around the shop as if they had somewhere important to be. Nico could almost smell desperation in them.

Not that the old people were that good, either. Percy had stopped by on his way to the beach to take pictures of Nico in his store-regularized apron. It surely was in Facebook and Instagram by the time the older boy got to his bike.

Leo had sent him dozens of snapchats making fun of his situation, which did nothing to appease Nico’s mood. Calypso, at least, had texted him tips on how to keep some of the flowers from withering and promised to arrive early for her shift.

Piper would be there soon, as well. They would work together during the afternoons, because that was when their sells increased. Of course, her presence would inevitably bring Jason to the shop.

After an entire morning on his own, he rather liked the idea of the hustle and bustle that his best friend would undoubtedly create.

There was a sharp chime, coming from the shopkeeper’s bell that his father had given Persephone, and Nico turned to look at the new arrival.

The guy was tall, tanned and blond, with strands of wavy hair falling onto his eyes in the way Percy’s usually did after he worked as a lifeguard the whole summer.

And tattoos covered both his arms.

“I need a snapdragon, ASAP!” He exclaimed, leaning over the counter to stare at Nico with wide blue eyes.

“Hello, Will.” Frank chuckled. “Those look good.”

“Good afternoon, Frank!” The guy – Will – smiled back. He lifted his arms, showcasing the designs. “Clarisse helped me with the left arm, but now she wants me to _draw_ this woman’s request. Sometimes, I think she hates me.”

Nico turned to look at them, having moved to one of the stands to get the flower.

“I thought Clarisse hated everyone.” He stood up. The snapdragon in his hand was bright orange, much like Will’s shirt.

“Oh, she’s a big softy, deep inside.” The stranger pursed his lips. “Deep, _deep_ inside. Oh, and I’m Will Solace. I work just next door.”

Nico nodded, already uninterested. “I gathered.”

Frank yelled out a goodbye before leaving.

“Loved the ink, by the way,” the blond boy commented casually, sliding a bill over the counter. Immediately, Nico’s hand moved to his sleeve and his eyes widened. “I meant the one on your collarbone, but now I know you have more than one.”

Nico glared at him.

“Shop policy says I can’t display them,” he explained, feeling strangely disconcerted.

Will shrugged, but his eyes were kind.

“I’m not judging, boy-who-won’t-say-his-name.” He hesitated with one hand on the counter, as if he didn’t actually want to go. “See you later, Ghost King.”

Will smiled one last time, leaving a scowling Nico behind.


	2. The implication of a rose

The next time Will Solace appeared at the flower shop, a week had passed.

The afternoon was unusually cold for summer, but Nico was not complaining. If he spent too long in the sun, freckles started to appear on his nose and cheekbones, and that seriously affected the intimidating look he typically went for.

That was probably the reason why Hazel and Piper loved them so much, as they were always aligning themselves with Percy and trying to force him into picnics or beach days.

“C'mon…” Piper extended her vowels when she was pleading with him. If it were done by anyone else, it would probably sound whiny, but, on her, it was fairly convincing.

When the bell rang, neither bothered to look. The shop was already half-full; if someone wanted help, they’d ask. She continued:

“I’m not asking you to impersonate sunshine, Nico. One day at the beach. Popsicles, junk food, making fun of people and ogling good looking guys.”

“That sounds fun.”

Will Solace was standing by the roses, carelessly rolling one around his fingers.

Nico glared.

“Those have thorns,” the dark-haired boy deadpanned. As if on cue, Will yelped.

Piper eyed the newcomer with interest, before letting her multicolored gaze shift back to Nico.

“Think about it. I’ll go check if it’s time to move the carnations.”

She gave Will a short nod of acknowledgement, before sidestepping him. Once she was out of his line of sight, though, Piper gave Nico two thumbs up, mouthing a “he’s cute” and escaping to the back of the shop when her friend’s expression turned dark.

With a sigh, Nico turned to face Will.

“How can I help you today?” He did his best not to sound too hostile, because Persephone had been getting on his nerves about how badly he treated customers.

Yeah, well, they treated him badly as well.

“Oh, I wanted something for my sister. It’s her birthday!” the blond boy explained, still twirling the rose in his hand. “Sunflowers are a must, ‘cause they are a family thing, but I wanted to add something less obvious.”

Nico lifted his eyebrows at him.

“A red rose?”

Will blushed and raised an arm to scratch behind his ear.

“Not for her.”

Although Nico was puzzled by the sheepishness in the customer’s expression, he chose not to mention it, suddenly distracted by the spread of clear, golden skin on Will’s arms.

“Where are your tattoos?”

Will blinked, looking from the florist to his own arm, before laughing.

“Oh, those weren’t real!” He rolled his shoulder back lazily. “I draw them every morning. It’s shop policy that all tattoo artists at least _appear_ to be inked. I’m sure you understand.” He pointed to Nico’s high-collared shirt.

“Isn’t that cheating?”

Will snickered at his grimace.

“We are working with two very different parts of society. Your flower buyers are prejudiced against tattooed florists, and my clients are against goody-two-shoes tattoo artists. The deception goes both ways,” he smiled, “so I guess that makes you a cheater, too.”

“Fine.” Nico frowned, but didn’t try to argue. “We both get shit because of who we are. Still, drawing all that everyday has to be annoying.”

Will shook his head, a relaxed look in his blue eyes.

“It’s good training and it helps with my ambidexterity.” He wiggled his fingers in Nico’s face. “I need steady hands if I want to be a surgeon.”

Nico swatted the hands away.

“You want to be a _surgeon_?”

In a way, he could see it. The guy had an air of responsibility to him that people would want in their doctors. Moreover, there was something to be said for the easiness that surrounded Will. He could probably calm people down simply by looking at them.

“ _Actually_ , I don’t know.” Will sighed. “I just started med school, so I’m not sure what I want to go into.”

Nico nodded curtly, deciding that was quite enough of talking.

“Is there any particular meaning you intend for the bouquet?” He turned to look at the stand of sunflowers and begun picking some of them.

Will angled his head to the side, confused, before his gaze fell to the flowers.

“Oh, yeah, Kayla. Right!” He laughed, and Nico would have wondered why he sounded so nervous, had he been paying attention. “Do you have something that says _best wishes_? She’s a sweetheart, really, with a passion for pretty things.”

Nico paused to think it over.

“Alstroemerias embody prosperity and fortune, and they are also the flowers of friendship.” He guided the blond boy towards a shelf of white-and-yellow flowers. “And it’s their season. These are from the Apollo species.”

A bright smile took Will’s face; it was a bit lopsided, but the enthusiasm in it made it look more attractive than Nico had ever thought possible. The dark-haired boy stared for a second.

“That’s perfect!” Will was saying. “Wow, that’s exactly what I needed! You must be working here for some time to know all that!”

Nico looked at him with scrunched up eyebrows, unsure on how to respond. From across the room, Piper smiled, motioning for him to say something.

“Hm, not really. The owner is my stepmother and she likes to talk about these things. A lot.” Nico lowered his gaze to the Peruvian lilies, already arranging them with the sunflowers. “That day last week was my first.”

As he spotted the gerbera daisies to his right, Nico almost didn’t catch the “lucky me” that Will breathed out.

“Anyway,” the blond exclaimed as they walked, a light blush covering his cheeks. “Those look great. Do you have something green, though, to break the pattern a bit?”

Nico had added a few orange flowers to the arrangement.

It was probably the loudest bouquet he’d ever created, the dark-haired boy realized with distaste. No wonder Piper had been making weird faces at him.

“Yeah, that’s probably for the best. You can head to the register while I add the button poms.”

For a second time, Will hesitated in turning around. He pursed his lips slightly, paused, and then seemed to give up on what he’d considered doing.

Not interested enough to ask, Nico followed him after a moment.

“Hey, I just wanted to thank you for your help.” Will was leaning over the counter, once again, blue eyes wide and sincere.

The florist shrugged, giving him back his change.

“It’s my job.”

Will nodded, but his lips twitched downwards in what looked like disappointment.

“Yeah, I guess it is.” He was staring at the counter, where the red rose sat, separated from the rest of the arranged flowers. “I’ll see you around, Nico.”

With a glance upwards, Will pushed the rose to where Nico’s hand still rested on the counter and left.

A second later, Piper was there, smiling with straight teeth and the sort of mischief that could only come from years of being best friends with Leo Valdez. She ignored the look of astonishment the boy carried.

“You either ask that guy to come to the beach with us,” her saccharin words were almost threatening, “or I do.”


	3. An exchange on what came before

“I don’t know what’s more ridiculous,” mused Piper McLean as she sprinted past her colleague on her way to the register. “That you don’t know why you’re pouting, or that I do.”

Nico didn’t move from his spot by the petunias, too irritated to bother helping her.

The truth was that he _didn’t_ understand why he felt so low. While the beginning of his week hadn’t been the most exciting, it was also not bad. The acclimatized flower shop was a good way to escape the summer heat and he’d spent his evenings with Hazel, since Frank had been working double shifts.

“What are you insinuating, McLean?” Nico kept his eyes on his book, ignoring the unmistakable elation in Piper’s voice.

“Oh, nothing, nothing.” She grinned, raising one perfectly sculpted eyebrow. “I just noticed that the blond hottie from next door hasn’t been around since he gave you that rose.”

The rose in question had been carefully – though not all that consciously – pressed between the pages of his book and, then, promptly forgotten until that exact moment. Or that was what Nico would say, if anyone ever asked.

He had to stop himself from cringing under Piper’s stare, but, outwardly, he glared.

“Really?” He had tried to be aggressive, but feared he’d ended up sounding sarcastic. “I mean – I hadn’t noticed.”

Piper snickered as she stopped by his side and crammed half of the tips into his backpack. They both knew how ridiculously transparent Nico could be when nervous.

“Yeah, sure.” She raised her gaze to the shop’s entrance. “I’ll pretend to believe that. Now go and tell lover boy that we’re closing early.”

Dark eyes widened as Nico turned to look at the door, where Will Solace stood with a hand over his eyes to try and see through the tinted glass.

He gulped and twisted back to his friend, almost knocking the chair down in his rush to get up.

“Piper, no!”

Hadn’t he been so completely taken aback by Will’s presence, the dark-haired boy would probably have grimaced at the vulnerability in his voice.

It was enough to make the girl hesitate.

Her expression softened as she put a hand on his shoulder, delicately holding him up. Despite the teasing and the prying, Piper had always been good at determining when Nico needed to be pushed forward and when he needed to be held back. In the years of their friendship, her discernment had never failed him.

“You can do this, Nico.” She tucked a strand of his hair behind his ear, smiling. “He’s just a boy.”

Nico grimaced.

“I don’t have a good track record with those.”

When Piper laughed, there was something heavy in its sound. She knew he was right in being uneasy. However, it went against her nature not to trust things to work themselves out.

There was a knock on the door, but they didn’t turn to look.

“Maybe that’s true,” Piper admitted in a low voice. She nudged him gently until Nico faced the door. “But you and I have always liked lost causes.”

Nico continued to frown as he was pushed forward, towards the blond boy. While he could accept Piper’s reasoning, as well as her intentions, he didn’t have to like them.

“Hey,” he growled, leaving the door open and marching back inside.

Piper smiled kindly at the two of them, before grabbing her purse.

“Now, you boys don’t do anything that I wouldn’t do.”

She pulled on Nico’s jacket, forcing him down so she could kiss his cheek, and proceeded to leave the shop.

Nico had to suppress the memory of their first meeting, when she had answered Jason’s door in only her underwear. He could still remember the way she’d laughed at his astonishment and how she’d responded to his chastising over how it could have been her boyfriend’s father, instead of his cousin, ringing the doorbell.

_“Well, taking into consideration his loose morals, I don’t think he would be in a position to say much.”_

In all truthfulness, there was very little that Piper McLean wouldn’t do.

“Hm…” Will stared at Piper’s retreating figure. “She’s… quirky.”

Nico observed as the boy ran a hand through his hair. In the bright fluorescent lights, it looked more yellow than golden, like the Apollos that still sat a few feet behind them. Once again, intricate patterns covered his arms, from the linework on his left shoulder to the gray-wash on his forearm. There was a fluidity in it that could only come from someone who’d studied this form of art.

“Not really. Just a bit nosy,” Nico commented, forcing his eyes away from Will’s biceps. If he was caught looking, it would probably lead to his embarrassment.

“Nosy, hm?” The light blue eyes that settled on Nico were strangely guarded; their previous easiness was almost absent, making Will seem almost apprehensive. “Is there something for her to be meddling on, then?”

Nico snapped his head to the side, glancing at the book he’d been reading.

The flower remained where it had been for the past week, quickly dry in the summer air, but it was of the words in the page behind it that Nico thought.

_I shift, an infinitesimal movement, towards him. It is like the leap from a waterfall. I do not know, until then, what I am going to do._

“What are you doing here, Solace?” He swallowed, trying to disguise how dry his throat suddenly felt.

The corner of Will’s lips turned down, trembling as he attempted to smile.

“I – I don’t know. I can go, if that’s…” He looked between the door and Nico. “This was a mistake. I’ll be going. Sorry.”

His hastiness snapped Nico from his pessimistic thoughts and he stepped onto the other’s path, stopping Will from leaving.

“I didn’t mean it like that.” He shook his head quickly, grimacing. “I guess I should thank you. For the rose.”

Will blinked once, twice. His brows furrowed.

He looked stupidly young then, with the curve of his brows and the roundness of his eyes, with that angular – almost triangular – quality to his jaw and the confusion that rested in the crinkle of his nose. Like a child who saw simplicity as logic, but didn’t understand common sense.

“Oh?” He let out a low laugh. “That’s a relief. I was afraid I’d offended you.”

Nico shuffled his feet.

They were standing maybe a foot from each other, unnecessarily close in the silence of the empty flower shop. Their proximity, however, didn’t seem to bother Will, who was back to his lazy smiles and tranquil gazes. He was probably the least intimidating person Nico had ever met, but that didn’t stop adrenaline from rushing through his veins at all the possible interpretations stemming from his words.

In pretty much anyone else, the dichotomy would have been unwelcome.

“How did you even know I was gay?” Nico tried to hide his sheepishness, but it was there, leaking onto his voice.

Color rose to Will’s cheeks.

“It was a bit of a shot in the dark.” It sounded more like a question than a statement, but Nico let him carry on. “Your friend was talking about looking at cute boys on the beach and I _may_ have asked Frank about you.”

The dark-haired boy frowned. He wasn’t sure how he felt about that; the rumors that had once gone around school were a difficult reminder of what it felt like to have people talking about him. Still, Frank was a friend – one of his best friends, if he was completely honest – and one of the kindest people he knew, second only to Hazel.

Having someone ask others about him, not because he was scary or standoffish, but because they were interested… That was oddly okay.

“So _that’s_ how you know my name.”

Will chuckled softly. At Nico’s inquisitive stare, he raised a hand to cover his smile.

“Yes and no? Clarisse told me your name.” He gestured towards Nico’s collarbone. “The tattoo gave you away.”

Nico crinkled his nose, not all that happy that Will already knew about that period of his life.

“Is that how you know about the nickname?”

“Well, you’re kind of a legend. Clarisse keeps the design on our walls, says it was drawn by this New York big-shot artist specially for the leader of the Ghosts.”

The blond offered him a grin, as if amused by this, but Nico shifted his gaze to his feet.

“Rachel, yeah.” He glared at the purplish tiles Persephone had chosen for the shop. “Can you just-? It’s not some great tale, Solace. People got seriously hurt.” He hesitated. “The tattoo? It actually covers one of the scars I got in that fight. So, yeah, not my favorite story.”

“Sorry,” Will muttered. “I didn’t mean to demean the whole thing. I’m just curious.”

“I was young, I was stupid and in a really bad place. I got involved with some people, cause I thought they would help. They didn’t. They found out I was gay, so we fought. End of story.”

Will heaved a sigh. The straight line of his lips contrasted strangely with the curves and angles of the rest of his face. Clearly disgruntled, he sat down and lightly pulled Nico by his wrist, closer to the chair the boy had vacated moments earlier.

“Clarisse mentioned Percy and Annabeth. She said they were somehow involved.”

Nico scooped up his book, turning his back to Will and ignoring the other’s silent demand to sit down.

“Piper obviously isn’t the only one who’s nosy.” Looking over his shoulder, he could see the shame that flashed through Will’s eyes. He continued. “My older sister, Bianca, had just died and I kind of blamed it on Percy. The fight started because Minos wanted me to get my revenge or whatever. I couldn’t, though, cause Percy was… A hero to me, maybe? I liked him.”

Will tilted his head to the side.

“I thought you and Percy were cousins?”

Nico grimaced.

“Hm, technically? Our parents are stepsiblings, no blood connection, and they hate each other. We had only just met when all this shit went down. Back then, Thalia was still living with Annabeth and Jason hadn’t escaped his father.” He pretended to check something at the register, but, instead, filed his book with the other papers already there. “Those are my other cousins, if you didn’t know that already.”

“I did, actually.” He had the sense to look bashful.

Nico huffed.

He disliked opening himself up, even to the people who were closest to him. He couldn’t comprehend Will’s interest in him, but it all felt a bit overwhelming. He couldn’t remember being that honest with anyone, except maybe his sisters.

“How do you even _know_ Percy?”

The blond boy smiled shyly, ruffling his hair a bit.

“We volunteered together. It’s why I tried to talk to you, two weeks ago. I knew I had seen you before.”

Nico liked how Will always answered his questions, no matter how awkward the truth might be. They were a far cry from Reyna’s ambiguity and his own evasiveness.

“You tried to talk to me?” He started to make the final rounds, turning off the lights from the back and making sure they’d brought all the flowers inside, repeating the steps that Piper had already taken.

“Hm, yes.” Will shifted in the chair, twisting to look at him. “I called you by nicknames, twice. I almost didn’t leave.”

Nico finally stopped by the counter. He had nothing to do there, as his friend had taken care of almost everything, but he once again found himself anxious by the tone the other had adopted. He felt a need for some sort of barrier between Will and himself.

“I hadn’t noticed,” he admitted, focusing on the agenda with the following deliveries.

“Really?” Will’s tone rose in pitch, probably sounding more surprised than he’d intended. Nico raised his eyes to him, subtly. “Wow, you’re _dense_. I was downright flirting, Death Boy.”

Despite the redness that had spread across his cheeks, Will was looking directly at him.

There were times, many years before, when Nico used to describe Percy’s gaze as fire or ice, or as the raging ocean. He’d thought to himself that there was nothing he wanted more than to have that intensity focused on him, all that attention and devotion.

Thankfully, those times had passed. He no longer wished for turbulent waters and, staring at calm blue eyes, he was reminded of morning air just after sunrise, of a strength that did not come from chaos.

And it was attractive as fuck.

“Another nickname?” Nico asked, lifting his eyebrows at the other boy, but doing his best to seem unimpressed. When he leaned forward, Will did too. “Is this another attempt to flirt with me?”

Will smiled. He stood up languidly and moved to the counter, producing another rose from behind his back. Nico suspected he’d nicked it from the stand when he hadn’t been looking.

“If I said yes, what would you say?”

Nico narrowed his eyes at the rose, before looking up at Will Solace.

He took a leap from the metaphorical waterfall.

“I would say…” He smirked. “Do you want to go to the beach with me and my friends this Saturday?”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> The book is The Song of Achilles, in case anyone's curious.


	4. Conversations under sunshine

Nico di Angelo shifted his weight from foot to foot, trying his best to ignore the constant comments that came from his friends. He was waiting for someone, and they knew he was waiting for someone, which was why they were suddenly so completely insufferable.

After a week of phone calls and late get-togethers after their shifts – they _weren’t_ dates, ok? –, he’d sent Will a text the previous night, asking for the boy to meet them at the Pier.

That had proven to be a very bad idea, as it gave Percy and Jason plenty of time to interrogate him over the newcomer.

“I didn’t know you knew Will!” Percy had exclaimed after his attempt at casually mentioning that the boy would be joining them.

“ _I_ don’t know this Will. Who’s he?” Jason had demanded, appalled by his ignorance over something in Nico’s life.

It was five am, his friends were freaks, and he was way too tired for this amount of bullshit.

After a few questions – that had remained unanswered –, Piper had been able to calm Jason down. She’d explained to her boyfriend that he _would_ have known who Will Solace was if he had kept his promise of staying in the shop during her shifts. After that, he’d found it difficult to continue complaining.

Unfortunately, Annabeth didn’t seem as inclined to stop Percy, and Hazel had decided to join the latter in his provocations.

“I can’t believe I hadn’t heard about this until now,” the girl whined. She had tied her hair back, but her curls shone caramel-brown in the growing sunlight, making it hard to look directly at her. As if the guilt trip wasn’t doing that already. “I’m your sister!”

Nico grimaced, uncomfortable with the hurt present in her tone.

He wanted to say that there was nothing to tell and that, therefore, he hadn’t seen any reason to raise the subject. However, there were now two roses pressed between the pages of his favorite books, and the statement felt too much like a lie.

Before he could come up with an excuse, Will appeared on the edge of the pier, running towards them.

“I’m sorry I’m late!” the boy huffed. His breath was labored and his curls looked more mussed than ever, which Nico couldn’t help finding a good look on him. “I can’t believe I lost the sunrise! I caught a ride with Kayla, but she has never quite grasped the meaning of punctuality.”

“Your sister is already awake?”

Will smiled at his tone of distaste.

“Well, yeah. We’re a family of early risers.”

Nico stared, unable to grasp the concept. The idea that anyone could actually enjoy doing this sounded like absolute idiocy.

“That’s the most ridiculous thing I’ve ever heard,” he stated, shaking his head.

When Will chuckled, he tucked his chin towards his chest. The movement hid his smile from view, but it didn’t distract from the creases that appeared around his eyes.

Nico received an elbow to his side, curtesy of Jason, who then moved forward to present himself.

Despite his best attempts to seem unaffected, Nico knew that a blush had risen to his cheeks at being caught staring. His one blessing was that none of the others seemed to have noticed; they wouldn’t have been as subtle in their mocking.

“Will, my man, it’s good to see you.” Leo had moved forward, high-fiving the blond.

“I hadn’t expected to see you here, Spock,” the other teased in response.

“You treckers need to step aside, you’re going to scare away the girls,” Percy interrupted, receiving punches on both shoulders from Will and Annabeth.

“Ignore him. I showed him Star Wars last week, and he seems to think that Star Trek fans are blasphemers.” The girl sent her boyfriend a glare. “We’ll have another marathon soon. Give him a week.”

Leo jumped up at this, dragging Frank into the conversation somehow, but Nico wasn’t looking at them anymore. Will had approached him subtly and there was another flower in his hands, a small lily he’d produced from inside his backpack.

He brushed it against the inside of Nico’s wrist, quiet in his demand for attention.

“Hey.”

Will’s lips turned up slightly, almost shyly, and the dark-haired boy felt something inside him flutter.

“Hey,” Nico breathed out, glad that his friends had drifted towards the water and away from this scene. They had a pretty good idea of how bad he was in romance, another demonstration was unnecessary.

As the two boys walked, nearing the beach, Nico quickly grabbed the lily. He thrust it into Hazel’s beach bag before any of the others noticed it and pretended not to blush at the way his fingers brushed Will’s.

“I hadn’t seen that one before.”

Nico turned to ask for clarification, but Will was already pointing towards his wrist, where there was a diamond of watercolor blues and reds and greens.

The tattoo was small in relation to the one on his collarbone, but it was also much more important to him than the rest. He knew that the design was unusual for someone like him – punk, broody, black and white – but it was also his favorite.

Nico shifted his gaze to where Hazel played by the water.

“I don’t really… flaunt it.”

Will reached for his wrist, holding it up and tracing the lines with the tip of his fingers.

“Why? It’s…” He paused, running his thumb back. “It’s covering a scar.”

Nico shrugged. He tried to pull his hand back, but Will kept it in his grasp, intertwining their fingers.

“I’ve already told you about the fight. I got stabbed. I killed Minos.”

Will squeezed his hand, huffing angrily.

“That was self-defense. As I heard it, you were protecting your friends.”

The blond looked almost endearing, with the concerned wrinkles that had appeared on his forehead and the tight set of his mouth, but not even his warmth could melt the block of ice that had settled on Nico’s stomach.

“It’s still murder, Solace.”

Will paused, and his blue eyes swept across Nico’s face. The seriousness depicted there obviously didn’t satisfy him, but it was enough to warn him against continuing that line of thought.

“The scar?” he asked instead, in a smaller voice.

Nico shuffled his feet, feeling awkward by both the subject and the fact that they were still holding hands.

“I didn’t notice it until after I had run home. No one was there, as usual. Bianca had died, dad was with Persephone… I had only just met Hazel. I was pissed at the world. Make a wild guess why.”

Will traced patterns on the back of his hands. The touch was more distracting than the designs themselves.

“Your father had cheated.”

Nico sent him a humorless smile, gulping down his anxiety.

“I was a fucking mess. When I noticed the cuts, I just… I wanted to bleed out, you know? I might have been delirious at that point, but I remember the feeling, the relief of just letting go.”

He didn’t enjoy remembering that day. It had probably been his lowest point, the moment when he decided that it was time to turn his life around. And while that might all sound poetic in novels and life-time original movies, in reality, it was just a reminder of the darkness inside of him.

A darkness that would never truly leave him.

“What happened?” Will’s voice broke through his thoughts.

“Hazel happened.” Nico raised his wrist, inspecting the scars himself. This time, Will let go of him. “She had lost her mother, so she was trying to get closer to us, her father’s family. She found me in a pool of blood in the middle of the kitchen.” When Nico laughed, it carried actual joy. “We had to redecorate.”

Will grimaced.

“I’ll bet.”

For a moment, they just smiled at each other, strained as it was.

There were freckles splattered across Will’s nose, but they were so light that they almost blended into his tan. He seemed at ease in the intense sunlight, with sand covering his feet and the ocean breeze against his hair.

He looked dangerously tranquil.

It would be too easy to fall in love with him, Nico realized. He would talk about pre-med and about his family with that tone of loving exhaustion, he would fuss over how much sleep Nico got or if he was eating, and then Nico would have to make sure Will wasn’t spreading himself too thin between all the aspects of his life.

It wouldn’t be perfect, but it would inexplicably easy.

“The diamond is for Hazel,” the boy started, breaking away from Will’s gaze. “She says it’s because I think she’s precious, and I guess that factored in. But it’s mainly to remind me that she’s a hardass and that I have that in myself too.”

Nico wanted to be nonchalant about it, but it was difficult to do so when the blond was staring at him with such fondness.

“I wouldn’t have thought you’d ever doubted your hardass status.” The way his eyes trailed over Nico’s body made the boy feel strangely dizzy. Before he could stutter his way through a change of subject, Will continued, “So, the diamond is Hazel, the crowned skull is for the Ghosts. What’s with the tally marks on your arm?”

Nico blushed.

“It’s for the people that would care if something happened to him.”

Frank had come out of nowhere. He smiled at the two boys, shaking his head like a dog and showering them in salty water.

Will’s entire face seemed to light up at this.

“Don’t look so excited. It was Hazel’s idea and Jason was so insistent about it that I just gave in.”

“He does realize that just makes it cuter, right?” Will fake-whispered to Frank, who tried to disguise his laugh in a cough.

“I don’t think he does.” Frank smiled, accepting the towel that Nico had extended to him. “I came to help you guys set up. Percy wants to race you,” he nodded towards Will, before turning back to the dark-haired boy, “and Hazel says you’ll get in that water even if she has to push you in.”

Nico chuckled, dropping to the sand.

“I promised Piper I would come, I said nothing about getting wet.”

Frank frowned for a second. When he grinned, it had something that reminded Nico too much of Reyna and her dry humor.

He sometimes forgot those two were army buddies.

“You just don’t want Will to see the wings on your back.”

The result was instantaneous.

Will’s blue eyes turned wide, his gaze going to the back of Nico’s t-shirt and then back to his face. He looked excited, but not in that puppy manner that Leo sometimes got. The blond was too languid for that. His look of interest carried a sort of seriousness that Nico hadn’t seen often, but that he could respect.

Even when Will was being clinical, he was warm.

Nico glared at Frank, who merely shrugged.

“What kind of wings?” asked Will, flexing his fingers.

Nico wondered if the guy wanted to touch him, of if he was just thinking of the patterns he could create.

In his distraction, he only noticed Hazel when she rested a hand on his shoulder.

“Angel wings,” she answered. She was kneeling down beside him, a coconut in her hands. “Percy sent me. He and Jason have gone super competitive. Again.”

Hazel rolled her eyes, but there was kindness in her smile.

When Frank leaned down to kiss her, Will shifted, eyes darting to Nico. The two boys flushed.

After her boyfriend was gone, accompanied by their newest addition, Hazel elbowed Nico on the ribs.

He growled at her, knowing full well why she’d done it. If his sister had been mad that he hadn’t told her about Will, she was probably seething now that she’d seen them interact.

“He likes you so much, it’s almost painful to watch!” the girl exclaimed when Nico remained silent. “Are you still gonna lie to me?”

Nico did his best to keep his expression blank.

“He doesn’t like me, Hazel.” When met with an incredulous glare, he added, “Not that much. And I’m not lying.”

“So you’re in denial.” The corners of her lips tugged downwards. “I just don’t want you to keep distancing yourself from good things.” She passed him the empty coconut, adjusting the straw. “I’m so proud of how far you’ve come.”

The boy smiled.

“I’m proud too, sis.”

“What’s the problem, then?”

“The problem,” Nico groaned, “is that I really like him already. And it can’t end well.”

Hazel took a moment to look at him, the tiniest of frowns etched upon her face.

“Don’t be a coward, Nico. You have never been one to step away from a challenge, so why start now?” She sighed when he scowled. He was tired of people telling him that. “I love you. I was here before that boy and I’ll be here long after him, but I’ll not stand for this sort of spinelessness.”

Nico tried to hold onto his glare, but a laugh managed to escape his throat. Hazel followed soon after.

“I hate when you turn the family’s natural defiance against me.”

She smiled, shrugging.

“You really should be used to it by now.”

For a while, they simply sat there, watching the sun rise higher in the sky. Then Hazel got up, untying her hair. She waved to someone in the water and turned to look expectantly at her brother, hands on her hips.

With a deep exhale, Nico pulled off his shirt, and the siblings ran towards the water.


End file.
